I tuned in to watch the U.S. Men’s Olympic hockey game Thursday afternoon and almost at once began to have flashbacks, to Olympic men’s basketball and September 1972.
Back then, I’d just turned 17 years of age, I’d started my senior year at Greater Johnstown High School, and most important, it was becoming more and more unlikely that I’d not be sent to fight in Vietnam since there was speculation the military draft was being ended.
In those simpler timers, I could afford to be concerned about such things as our U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, composed entirely of college players, not the pros other nations sent to the Games back then. The U.S. never lost in the Olympic men’s basketball, despite all that.
And yet, this time we did lose, to a Soviet Union team of professional athletes listed as soldiers and the like. Worse, it seemed the Soviets got about a thousand chances at the end to hit the game-winning shot.
Okay, so maybe it was only three chances, but that was two too many. The U.S. protested and a five-member panel with two Soviet stooges onboard said protest denied. The Russkies got the gold and we got the shaft.
Imagine, cheating by referees and judges at the Olympics. Good thing that hasn’t continued. Oh, wait.
It was quite a lesson for this teenager, and one I never quite forgot.
Fast-forward to Thursday and I settled in to watch the U.S. face Latvia in the Olympic men’s hockey. I know, I know the U.S. women already have trounced Canada, 5-0, in a preliminary round game and are favorites to take gold medals among the women. Fine and dandy, but I’m more interested in the men’s games.
The good news is there is a considerable talent differential between our hockey team and Latvia’s, unlike the closely matched Soviet and American Olympic basketball teams from 1972.
That meant the U.S. could overcome some – shall we say – questionable decisions made by game officials today and still prevail.
Consider, the U.S. twice in the first period scored goals only to have them waved off after challenges from Latvia. I will concede the first play might have been offside, although any video evidence to that effect was not shared with the viewers. The second, well, it was not goalie interference in my book.
And then there was the phantom hooking penalty called against a U.S. player, giving Latvia a power-play opportunity. All this in the first period.
I paused the broadcast and rushed to the computer to find out exactly who these game officials might be. Turns out the two referees were Canadians. You might have heard, there is quite a rivalry between Canada and the U.S. in hockey, politics, and just about everything else.
I’m sure these two Hosers called it straight. But skeptics might struggle to accept that.
Unlike that 1972 basketball game, a possible finger on the scale for the opposition wasn’t enough to change the outcome of this hockey contest.
The U.S. ran away away with a 5-1 win and it wasn’t that close. Add back in the two disputed goals and consider the U.S. hit a crossbar and a goalpost — an inch or two either way and two more goals — and you’re looking at a 9-1 final.
My concern is, down the line when the talent levels are closer, having two goals taken away in a single period might be too much to overcome.
If, as anticipated, Canada and the Americans meet later in this affair, I’m hoping we get an even split when it comes to officiating breaks. No referees from Canada, please!
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